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Sideways Stories In Wayside School
Sideways Stories In Wayside School (originally named "Tales Of The Wayside" on soft opening or simply known as "Wayside School") is a dark ride that was formerly located at Six Flags South Dakota. It soft opened on June 20, 1981, then officialy opened on September 29, 1982 along with the rest of Six Flags South Dakota and closed at the end of SFSD's 2005 season. A clone of the ride ran at Six Flags Over Savannah from 1983 to 2000. History Concept Design In 1978, Dennis Hockerman made a sketch what it would later become Sideways Stories In Wayside School, featuring Todd hitting Eric Ovens with a bat. Pre-Opening In 1981, Six Flags South Dakota soft opened with an earlier version of Sideways Stories In Wayside School, with the smaller animated figures. Redesign and Opening Between 1981 and 1982, Six Flags commissioned Don Jarken to redesign the ride. Among with the renaming, the props and animatronics were replaced. Fire On September 18, 1984, a fire broke out in the final scene caused by the "Bebe" figure. The fire spread to the props and the other animated figures in the scene. The ride was refurbished for Six Flags South Dakota's 1985 season. During the ride's last season in 2005, the interior mechanism in one of the singing apple figures became stuck, heating up its coil and causing a fire to break out. Since the apple figures were modeled out of polyurethane foam, the fire spread quickly, destroying the apples and the background behind them and even spreading over to the nearby scene with The Three Erics holding Todd in a bag, though it was extinguished before there could be any further damage. As a quick fix, the turnips from the finale were brought to where the apples had formerly been. Closure Because of the 2005 fire as well as the age of the ride itself, Sideways Stories In Wayside School was completely scrapped in the off-season (with backdrops sold to a theater company, some of the figures owned by fans of the ride, and props being in the museum). Six Flags hired a team to develop a new dark ride to replace Sideways Stories In Wayside School, and that project is what became Beaver Country. Post-closure In 2007, during Six Flags South Dakota's 25th anniversary, the Yuletide scene was put onto display. Albeit redressed and repainted to match the 2007 cartoon designs. Note that Joe and John replaced Ron and Calvin. During Six Flags South Dakota's 30th anniversary in 2012, Todd (used to be in the Washboard Band scene) and Maurecia (used to be in the Fishing scene) are put on display, redressed in their 2007 cartoon designs. They were seen again on the park's 35th anniversary in 2017. To promote the cartoon Wayside's 10 anniversary in 2017, lots of redressed figures were put on display. They were seen again during the Easter 2019 event, but redressed to match Tim Heitz's illustration. Savannah version A version/clone of the ride ran at Six Flags Over Savannah from 1983 to 2000. It had a longer "Save Todd" scene and a longer thunderstorm scene. It was closed in 2000 due to the popularity of the 1998-present version of Tales of the Okefenokee. The "Mrs. Jewls" figure in the final scene of the Savannah version was retrofitted into a sea monster for a roller coaster in Six Flags South Dakota. Category:Dark rides Category:Six Flags South Dakota Category:Rides that opened in 1982 Category:Rides that closed in 2005 Category:Six Flags Over Savannah attractions